LIVINGSTON — The Livingston Parish District Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal investigation into Council Member Erin Sandefur after she admitted to sharing government checks that subsequently appeared in a campaign mailer for DA candidate Sherman Mack, The Advocate reported.

The mailer contained images of actual parish checks with unredacted bank account and routing numbers. The breach compromised the parish government’s financial account, forcing administrators to shut it down immediately and open a new one.

The full transition to the new bank account is expected to take several weeks as administrators work to contact multiple business entities, vendors and partners to update payment details.

21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux told The Advocate that the criminal probe will focus on whether Sandefur committed malfeasance in office. Investigators are assessing whether the council member failed to perform a lawful duty required of her as a public official or carried out official duties unlawfully.

In response to the probe, Sandefur posted a statement to Facebook, "I committed no crime. This is political rhetoric... I asked for the payments to the Moody Law Firm and they were given to me from Parish government, and I shared them. There is no law that prohibits any resident of this parish from making public, public documents."

"Would a person paid by the Parish be subject to a criminal investigation if they made their payment public or is this just weaponization of the DAs office? I was not informed by the administration that the documents were in any way confidential. If the administration made a mistake then it should investigate itself," Sandefur said.